1852 - U.S. Senate ratifies Horse Creek treaty

One of the ten known copies of the Treaty of Horse Creek

The Senate balked at some of the same
provisions it had approved before the council. Lawmakers
asked Fitzpatrick to revisit the headmen of the tribes to seek
their approval for these changes. Fitzpatrick tracked down
each tribe and secured the marks of their headmen, and the Senate
ratified the treaty, formally recognizing the great western tribes
as being the owners of more than 1 million square miles of the
American West, an area larger than the entire Louisiana
Purchase.

Among its many
provisions, the federal government promised to protect Indian
resources and tribal hunting grounds from depredations by white
settlers moving west along the Oregon Trail. This is one of
many promises made in this treaty by the federal government that
was never kept.